Back and Forth
by CMDarkAngel
Summary: After "Lose Yourself". Eli is having trouble getting over Clare, but can an old friend help? Clare is faking her way through her relationship with Jake. What's in store for these two? Hint: EClare.
1. Chapter 1

ELI:

The next few days were hell.

From the look on her face the night she told me she had read it, she knew I loved her. And yet, she looked happier with Jake than she ever had with me. I kept having doubts. _Maybe she would be better off with him. Maybe I should just back off. _I shared all of this with Adam, but he always gave me the same answer.

"_Dude, she thinks you hate her. Don't think about trying anything, her and Jake are getting pretty serious."_

I was getting desperate. After school, I practically ran home. CeCe and Bullfrog were gone, of course, so I went straight to the kitchen.

The first thing I saw was her short shorts that hardly covered her ass, and her long dark auburn hair that hit her mid-back. She was on a step stool, putting dishes away.

"What are you doing here?" I nearly screamed, startling her so much she almost fell off the step stool. It was too bad she didn't.

"ELI! Don't scare me like that!" She turned around, showing that she had lost the glasses she used to wear last year, swapping them for contacts that made her hazel eyes that much more powerful. She never wore a lot of make up, now not even the liner she used to always wear. Her skin, although flawless, had lost its glow. Even her body looked different. Last year, she had perfect curves, slightly heavier than most girls, but not overweight. The girl I saw before me hardly had any curves at all, on a skinny frame. The tan that she usually had had last year had faded into pasty white, like her sister's had years before.

"Then _what_ are you doing here?" I demanded again. I had tried to avoid her since the night when we killed her sister. I hated her.

"Chill. My dad's gone again, back on active duty. Mom died 'of grief' after Julia passed… Long story short, I have nowhere to go. A couple weeks ago, my dad called yours and finalized plans. They didn't tell you?" Her voice even sounded wrong. Every word shook, every letter accented.

I cursed my father under my breath. It wasn't unlike him to make plans with Julia's father behind my back, especially since he was so worried about my well-being. They didn't know why I wouldn't speak to Angel after Julia died, and hopefully they never would. "No, he must've forgotten." I said with ice. I didn't want to be near her again, as far as I cared, she could have died with her sister and mother. She was the reason they were dead. Her and me, of course. As far as I knew, she was a fucking murderer. And so was I, I had to remind myself. She went through as much pain as I did when her own sister died. As the inner battle inside me continued, I knew I needed to get away. But Angel had other plans.

"Eli, I know you're not happy to see me, but since I'll be living here for the next couple of months—"

I had to cut her off. "What about that fucking boyfriend you had, why won't _he_ take you in?" I was desperate to get away from her. And yet I just wanted to hold her close to me, tell her everything would be okay.

"You mean Marc, from last fucking year? I told him what happened and now he won't speak to me. Not one of my old friends will. And since I took a year off school after Julia died, I have no friends anymore, and I'll be a damn senior once the year starts again."

"Let me guess, you're moving to Degrassi?" One of my worst nightmares, finally coming to life. Clare, being as kind as she is, meeting Angel and knowing the darkest secret behind Julia's death. She'd never love me again. She'd never even think of me the way she does now.

I couldn't risk it.

"Possibly. I mean, there's no way of knowing for sure. It all depends on how my dad does this time, if he comes home at all…" I remembered Angel's negative outlook on her dad being in the army, despite his many honors and medals. He and her uncle had signed up together, and her uncle had died within weeks of arriving. Julia always had a different take on it. She never cared if her dad came back; she was always closer to her mom. Her father was not kind to his younger daughter the way he was with his eldest. But I remembered that the girl in front of me had no family except her father. And part of me wanted to rub that in her face.

"Whatever. I have stuff to do." I could just do some revisions on the play or something, if I really had to do something to just get Julia and her sick sister out of my mind.

"Well, I'm done with the dishes, maybe I could help." Angel practically pleaded with me. I shot knives at her with my eyes. The look she gave me showed me how broken the girl who had let her body shrink was. She mouthed at me; barely a whisper escaping her lips, "I'm sorry Eli…" She blamed herself. For all of it. She needed help, and I was her only option.

"Sure. I just need help reading lines for the play I wrote."

Her face lit up. She was no actress, but I knew that she could be great just reading through it. I breathed heavily. I could handle this.

CLARE:

Eli's mood had changed dramatically at school after our last encounter. He seemed angrier, more depressed. For Jake's sake, I pretended nothing ever happened. I couldn't let Jake know that every time Eli walked past, I wanted to run up to him and hug him and kiss him, and tell him everything would be okay. But every bone in body knew it was impossible. He didn't love me. He couldn't, right? He may have realized his mistake when he slandered me in his play, but that didn't mean anything. So I took out my passion on Jake. Everything I felt for Eli I forced to shift to Jake. Every thought, every fantasy, I replaced Eli's face with Jake's. It stung at first, but I was slowly getting used to it. But when Eli started talking to me again, it took everything I had not to run back into his arms and beg for him to take me back.

It started about a week after I noticed his mood changes.

"Clare!" His voice stopped me in my tracks. Luckily, Jake wasn't around to notice my slight breakdown.

I could hardly turn around, "Yes, Eli?"

"Do you know if I can bring someone from outside the school to be a publicity head for the play?" I was confused by his nonchalance when he talked to me now. Maybe he really _was _over me.

I tried to answer him with as little emotion creeping through as possible. "You would have to talk to Mr. Simpson and Ms. Dawes about that. Though I think if they're over 18, it doesn't really matter."

"Great, thanks." And with that, he was gone. Yet I still couldn't really breathe. I almost felt like crying. If he was over me, why couldn't I get over him? He was the one who drove a hearse into a wall just to keep us together! What changed? I was the one who had another boyfriend, who had _tried_ to move on. And yet I got weak at the knees when I just looked at his beautiful green eyes. After that, I faked sick to get away from both Eli _and_ Jake. It was just too much.


	2. Chapter 2

ELI:

After I saw Clare, I ran to the bathroom. I knew I had needed an excuse to talk to her, but I also knew I must've shocked her with my trivial question. I tried to make myself feel better by saying she might've known because she was on the newspaper, but it was a flimsy excuse. I just needed to talk to her. I looked in the mirror, and saw tears beginning to form. I quickly wiped them away before the next bell.

During class, I was somewhere else. Angel needed something to pass the time, and my play was just the thing. Because she had no schoolwork, she could be fulltime publicity head. The school needed money, and Ms. Dawes would confide in me that she thought the play was the last shot.

After the final bell, I began to walk toward the auditorium. All of a sudden I saw a familiar face burst through the doors. She had dressed as though she were going to an interview, but sadly it was too sexy to be completely professional. The skirt was just a little too short, and the blouse was just a little too sheer. Guys in the hallways started catcalling and she went red in the face. She looked incredibly nervous as she looked for a familiar face.

"Angel!" She turned my way, and sighed, attempting to pull her skirt down.

"Do I look okay?" She looked at me with worried eyes, and I stared back at her with cold ones. She shied away. "Just asking."

"So, you know what to do, right? I'll ask the questions, do the talking, until they ask you any questions. Got it? And if there's a girl from the Degrassi News there, don't even go near her." She looked at me with one eyebrow raised, and chuckled because of my serious tone. "What?" I snapped.

She started laughing. "I'm sorry, what? Eli, you're freaking out over nothing. I'm the publicity girl, if they let me, then I _have_ to deal with the press. Duh." She stuck her tongue out at me as we walked into the auditorium.

Luckily I had already talked to Fiona about Angel joining the team, and she didn't really care, and had slightly prepared Ms. Dawes. They were standing together, talking. When we walked in, she already had a few questions.

"So, is this her?" She asked, not a care in the world. I knew what that meant. Angel was in.

"Yes," I motioned toward her. "This is Angel Radcliff." She curtsied, in a typical Angel way. I smiled. She hadn't completely lost herself. "She had to take a break from school because of personal issues, and she wants to be a fulltime publicity head."

Ms. Dawes pressed her lips into a hard line. "What kind of personal issues?"

My face fell. She thought Angel was a drug addict. I opened my mouth, about to say some pretty nasty things when she cut me off.

Speaking calmly, she said. "My sister passed away due to an accident during spring break last year. I couldn't face going into school alone. My friends didn't know how to comfort me, so they disappeared, one by one. My mom couldn't take the guilt of losing one daughter, so she didn't make it through. And, with my dad being the famous Colonel Radcliff, he wasn't around a lot. I had to take care of the house. School lost priority. I feel like this is my one chance to not only get back into some sort of routine, but maybe even get back into school." She shrugged, accepting the lifestyle she now had. I was shocked. I knew all of this, but to hear her say it was something else entirely. I looked at Fiona and Ms. Dawes. Fiona's mouth was agape, sympathy in her eyes. Ms. Dawes had tears in her eyes, but quickly blinked them away.

"Well, then I guess you're our new publicity head. I could even talk to Mr. Simpson to make it possible for you to come to Degrassi for the remainder of this year, and next. How does that sound?" Ms. Dawes voice cracked only a little bit. I knew how easy it was to get her to understand. And when I looked at Angel, she was beaming. I smiled.

CLARE:

I came back to school the next day expecting it to be the same as any day. But the entire school was talking about this new girl. From the rumors, I deduced that she was from the same school Jake came from, and that she had a couple dead relatives.

"Hey! Have you heard? This new girl at Degrassi is the publicity head for the play." Alli was at my locker before me. "Looks like you won't have to deal with an angry Eli anymore." My heart sank. No more play coverage with Eli meant no more Eli. Maybe this was my chance to move on. I tried to think positively about this.

"Yeah, now we both can just move on with our separate lives." I half sighed.

Alli made a face, and then her attention was diverted. She pointed away from the lockers. "There they are."

I turned around to see Eli and a girl who could be a model walking with him. She had a red polo to signify that she was a junior, and the typical khaki skirt that went with our uniform. She had dark eyeliner on, and some lip gloss, but no other makeup. And she was just beautiful. Her hair fell perfectly straight, and framed her face perfectly. She and Eli were going over his script for the play, and were completely engrossed in their conversation, so much so that they didn't even notice the catcalls and stares that she was getting.

My stomach was in knots. I couldn't believe how jealous I felt. He looked content, even happy, to be having conversations with her. I found myself following them all the way down the hall, until they stopped at what I assumed was going to be her locker. After she opened it, Eli took off, leaving her alone to the attention.

Suddenly, Mr. Simpson came up over the PA. "Clare Edwards and Angelina Radcliff, please come to my office." By the look on the new girl's face, she was the second one on Simpson's list.

I gathered my stuff, and went straight to the office, ignoring Alli's "Ooh, what did you do?" comments.

Mr. Simpson waited outside for us, and when we arrived he simply told us that we had a lot of classes together and that I would be leading her around the school, and to make sure she had a couple friends. I tried to convince Mr. Simpson that a junior would be better off leading her around, but he said that when it came to new students, I would be the best option.

I just didn't want to be around the same girl who could make Eli smile again after our strange encounter.

She officially introduced herself to me. She stuck her hand out, smiled, and said, "Angel, and you're Clare? I've heard quite a bit about you." She giggled quietly.

That made me shudder. "That's a scary thought." I forced myself to smile. "From who, if I might ask?" Even though I knew already.

"Several people. Eli, Jake—"

I cut her off. "You know Jake?"

She half smiled, confused. "Yeah, he was my ex-boyfriend's best friend. We're pretty good friends."

Great, this was more complicated then I thought.


	3. Chapter 3

ANGEL:

My first day was a little awkward. Jake's girlfriend was nice when she led me around, but since I had told her that I knew her boyfriend she was a bit cold. I tried to make her feel better when I told her that Jake was crazy about her and I had only heard good things from him. When that didn't help, I assumed she was suffering from a migraine or something.

The things I had heard from Eli though, were not so good. I tried to mention Eli as little as possible, knowing about the rough breakup and the warnings from Eli about what not to say. Although when I sat next to Clare in English class, Eli had shot me a strange look, especially when Clare had talked to the teacher about how she needed to catch me up on most assignments, so she would be my new partner.

After English, Eli came up to me and said. "So Clare's your partner."

I rolled my eyes. "She my new tour guide, courtesy of Mr. Simpson. I could practically lead her around though. She doesn't seem like she's feeling good." I turned to look at her, and she was talking to the teacher, so I had a little bit of time.

"Is she okay?" Eli tried to push me aside to see her, but I pushed him right back.

"Don't be creepy Eli. She's fine. It's just a headache or something. She's been holding her head and a little dizzy. I can handle her." He looked worried, but just that second she came through the door.

She looked around for a second, then saw me at the other door. She started to walk toward us, but then saw Eli and I saw her body shift awkwardly. He didn't help when he stared at her until she got close enough, then smirked. "Hey Clare."

I shot him a nasty look, then looked at her and smiled. "Where are we going next?" I waved her over, knowing it would make both of them uncomfortable.

She tried to avert her attention elsewhere. "Uhh, our last class is…" She looked at Eli, and I realized why she was so uncomfortable around me, and smiled. "History. Our last class is history." I hooked my arm around hers, and was anxious to get her away from him and his awkward stares. She let me pull her down the hall, until she realized it was the wrong way, and we turned around, both of us red in the face, hearing Eli laughing the whole time.

Whenever I was with Clare, most people would leave me alone and the annoying sexual comments were kept a minimum except from the freshman. On the other hand, when I was with Eli, _everyone _was screaming and catcalling at us. I even had some guy come up to me and ask why I was with Eli when I could get a real man. I looked him over, and asked. "Oh? Really, where? All I see are immature douche bags here." As Eli was not one to be outdone, he decided not to correct the guys when they kept screaming, "Get some!" I could only roll my eyes. If he wanted us to pretend date, I'd go along with it. It'd be better than walking through the halls single. Besides, I knew he wasn't interested in anyone else but Clare, so I wasn't getting in the way.

At the end of the day, Ms. Dawes had told me she wanted to do a viewing of the play, like a dress rehearsal, just so that I would know exactly what I was advertising. Ever since the first day, she had treated me like her equal, despite the fact that I was a student. It was refreshing not to be looked down on by teachers for starting the year so late.

After the rehearsal, the girl who had played Eli's opposite, Clara, came up to me. "So what do you do?" She said, bubbly and bouncy.

"I'm the publicity head. I make sure we actually have an audience, and I deal with the news people."

She beamed. "So Eli doesn't have to deal with them anymore?"

I made a face, somewhere between slightly disturbed and confused. "Yeah, I guess he won't. But what does that matter? It's not like it takes a lot of time out of his day?" And with that, she was gone. I shrugged it off, scribbling a couple notes for Eli. When him and I had gone through the lines of his play he told me that it was loosely based on what had actually happened in his relationship with Clare.

Ms. Dawes came up to me then. "We already have posters, but if you could get the word out past the school, then that would be wonderful."

I smiled. I was way ahead of her. "I already had a couple restaurants around town put the posters up, and Mr. Simpson said the school has already gotten a few calls already regarding tickets. But it is really nice to actually know what I'm talking about when I call it a dark romance."

Then she smiled. "It _is _an amazing play. We have our writer to thank for that."

As if on cue, Eli walked up to us. "What'd you guys think?"

I motioned to my notepad. "What do you think?" I smiled.

He looked at what little there was. "With you, the less notes the better." Then he looked at Ms. Dawes notes, seeing several pages. "With Ms. Dawes, the more the better." We all chuckled.

"Well, I'll leave you kids to it. And Angel, keep it up. I'd love a full house opening night." We smiled at each other.

"It shouldn't be that hard." Eli and I turned to each other once she was gone. "So, you've still got stuff to do here?"

"Sadly yes," All of a sudden, we both noticed Clare walk in. "but it looks like you do too. I'll leave you to that."

I knew he didn't like to be too close to Clare. It seemed to him like it just wasn't close enough. "Hey Clare, interview time?" I motioned for her to sit down, and when she did, I sat next to her. I saw Eli in the distance watching us.

"Yeah, where are Fiona and Eli?"

I smiled and chuckled. "Just can't stand to be away from Eli, huh?" She shot me a look. I rolled my eyes. "Look it's not like he can hear us. I was just making a joke. I know you need your interview. Well, I'm all you've got." She looked incredibly confused. "I'm the publicity head, so you can only talk to me until opening night."

"Great, now I'm stuck with you in _and_ out of school." She made a face, obviously joking.

"Ouch!" I laughed. Freed from the stress of being around Eli, she really let loose. This was the girl Jake and I had talked about through email, laid back, bubbly, and fun.


	4. Chapter 4

ELI:

After rehearsal, Angel and I walked back to my house. She was happy, telling me all about how much she loved Clare, and how she hadn't seen Jake at all, which was strange, but she would be excited to see him again.

I just listened and nodded. I had forgotten that Jake had gone to our school, much less was close to our group of friends. Off in my own world, I didn't notice when Angel had begun reminiscing.

"…and it got all in Julia's hair. She was _so _pissed. Don't you remember that, Eli?" She snapped her fingers in my face. "Eli? Hello?"

"What, Angel?" I asked, startled.

She rolled her eyes. "The first time Marc and Jake had joined our group. We had gotten ice cream, and… You really don't remember?"

I chuckled and smirked, enjoying the memories as they flooded over me. "Marc had tripped over that Weiner dog, and when you and Julia tried to catch him, she got right into the path of the ice cream, and it fell all down her hair and back." We laughed, but the mood soon went sour, and memories of that night came rushing to me.

_Julia refused to walk around town covered in ice cream, so we made the short walk back to her house. She showered, and put Angel's clothes on because all of hers were dirty. She was wearing a bright red tank top and dark wash jean shorts._

"_Ugh, I hate wearing her clothes. They're too loose and I always feel exposed." She said, looking in the full-length mirror her sister had in their room. Julia had a much smaller figure than Angel, which meant less curves. I had always wished that Julia had her sister's body, but I would never tell her. She was always trying new diets to stay skinnier than her sister because she had thought Angel was gorgeous compared to her, and needed something to hold over her head._

"_I think they look good on you." I admitted. Seeing Julia in sexy things was rare, because never thought her body was good enough._

"_You have to say that. You're my boyfriend." She came up to me and sat on my lap, wrapping her hands around my neck._

_I looked her straight in the eyes. "I think you're beautiful, Julia."_

_She rolled her eyes and got off me. "You know how I feel about you saying that."_

_ "Why can't you just believe me for once?" I got up and grabbed her hands in mine. "Look at me, Julia. What do you see?"_

_ She looked confused. "I see Eli Goldsworthy?"_

_ I kissed her fully on the lips. "And I see Julia Irene Radcliff, and that is the most wonderful sight in the world."_

Suddenly I was forced back into reality. Angel and I had taken to sitting down on a bench. There were tears in her eyes, and as I reached out to comfort her, another memory came to haunt me.

_"Eli, she's cheating. There's nothing else to it!"_

_ I held my face in my hands in disbelief, trying to blink the tears away. "There _has _to be more than that. It doesn't make any sense. She loves us. She loves me…"_

_ She walked up to me, and grabbed my hands, slightly forcefully. I looked up at her and saw that she was crying too. "She betrayed both of us. She's cheating—with _my_ boyfriend. We need to show those damn cheaters that they won't get the best of us."_

I shook my head, trying to get that night out of my head. It kept screaming, and all the feelings of guilt and regret washed over me as I heard Julia scream.

_"How could you believe that, Eli? I thought you trusted me! One stupid rumor and a little white lie and suddenly I'm cheating?"_

But that wasn't all I heard. I watched Julia, my beautiful fragile girl, break, in front of me.

_ "And then, you betrayed me." _I remembered those words that broke my heart. _"Did you ever love me at all?"_ It was the exact same thing that Clare had said to me the one night at Above the Dot because my meds clouded my feelings for her. I remembered going home and crying that night once my meds wore off.

The memories of Julia and Clare were suddenly too much. I couldn't look at Angel anymore. We were murderers again. I heard her quiet sobs as she remembered her own version of the story.

I didn't know what to do, so I just coldly said, "Let's go home."

CLARE:

Later that night, when Jake and I were hanging out like we usually did at my house, I decided I would ask him about Angel. He hadn't been at school because he had to help his dad with this huge project that desperately needed to get finished, so he had no idea that she was even at the school.

"So, we had a new student at school today." I tried to casually bring up. "I had to lead her around."

He hardly took any notice of it. "Good. You're really good at that." He flashed his electric smile that usually made me feel warm inside, but tonight I was worried. I saw how beautiful Angel was, and Eli was already completely into her. I had even heard rumors that they were dating, and I just couldn't lose Jake to her too.

I looked down when I talked to him. "She said she knew you from your old school."

His head perked up, clearly confused and curious. "Name?"

I got really nervous, and I wasn't completely sure why. "Angel Radcliff. Said you were a friend of a boyfriend or something."

He jumped, surprised. "Angel's at Degrassi? I thought she said she'd never step foot here after her sister's boyfriend transferred? How did she get around _him? _How is she? I haven't heard from her in _forever._ I never thought she'd be able to recover from everything that happened. Is her dad still alive?" He kept bombarding me with questions I didn't quite know how to answer. It was obvious that they were pretty close when they were talking. I wanted to crawl under a rock until he surprised me. "Did she recognize you from the photos and stuff I sent her?" He had told her about me? She never mentioned it.

I shrugged. "I guess not. She never said anything about it."

That didn't seem to faze him. "Wow, Angel's back. Never thought I'd see the day." And that was the end of that conversation.


	5. Chapter 5

ELI:

Angel and I hadn't spoken since that episode at the bench, so when we walked together to school the next day, it was awkward to say the least. She tried to start all sorts of conversations, but none were enough to stop my coldness. I didn't even know why I was acting like this. I had gone through everything in my mind a thousand times, and that it wasn't either of our faults.

But when she said something right when we got to the school, I just _had _to say something. "So, your friend, what was his name? Adam, that was it! Adam asked me out yesterday. I forgot to tell you before. I told him that we were dating, so that—"

"What!" I stopped her in her tracks. "What the _hell _gives you the idea that we're dating!"

She rolled her eyes and pushed past me. Once we were inside she finally spoke up, but hardly above a whisper. "I _know _we're not actually dating, Eli. But I need an excuse to turn down all the _freaks _at this school."

"Adam isn't—"

She put her hand up. "That relationship could take weeks to develop. I _know _you, Eli. I know you don't want anyone but Clare, and if you catch her, or I find someone else, we can have a fake-up break-up. But," we looked around, and I saw that several people were staring at us, including several perverts who were looking directly at her, "right now, we need to have a fake-up make-up." She kissed my cheek, and loudly said. "Sorry about that misunderstanding, and I'm glad we could settle that, _sweetie_. I'll see you in English."

I froze. What just happened? I saw the crowd that was watching us disperse, and a couple obnoxious assholes bumped into me. Adam then came up to me and grabbed my shoulder.

"Dude, you should have told me about your new hottie, or I wouldn't have made a fool out of myself by asking her out." He looked embarrassed, and slightly sad, but tried to be happy for me.

"Hey, can I be honest with you?" and with that I told him about Angel, how she was staying with me while her dad was gone, about how she was Julia's sister, and how we had to fake date in order to make sure she wasn't harassed.

"Dude, does this mean I have a shot?" He asked, suddenly excited, practically bouncing off the walls.

I didn't know if she would go for him, but I didn't want to crush his hopes. "I guess, but it has to be private. She'd freak if everyone knew she was single."

He started beaming. I hadn't seen him this happy since Fiona told him she was interested. "Course. This is _awesome._"

The bell then rang. "Come on, dude. Time for class."

CLARE:

When I got to school, Jake and Angel were already talking and laughing. At my locker. When Angel saw me though, she knew she had to take off. She said a quick hello to me, then went to meet Eli at his locker.

Once she was gone, Jake practically continued his conversation to me. "Dude, I totally forgot that Eli dated Julia. I couldn't even remember his name. It's weird now, to think I used to hang out with him."

Wait, what? Julia? Eli? Hung out with Jake? "What?" was all I could manage.

"Angel went to my old school and—"

I cut him off. "I know _that._ But what about Eli? And how do you know about Julia?"

"Julia's Angel's sister. Or… _was _Angel's sister." His face fell, and he sighed. "She was pretty cool. And same with Eli. But even then, I never remembered his name or what he was like, he was just Julia's boyfriend."

I stared at him, shocked. I didn't know that Eli and Jake had even gone to the same school, much less were friends. And Julia was in the mix again? She was Jake's friend, Eli's ex, and Angel's _sister?_ This was a lot to process. Whenever Eli talked about Julia, he had never mentioned a sister.

"Well, babe, I got to get going. See you soon?" I nodded, still lost in thought. Why would Angel be kept a secret? She seemed pretty relevant in terms of what happened in Julia's life. I decided that I needed to talk to Angel about it, to get the clear picture. I knew English would be the best place because we had a partner project that we had to work on.

Throughout my classes, I kept coming up with more questions.

When I finally got to English class, I immediately sat next to Angel. I immediately forgot most of the questions, and kicked myself for not writing them down.

She looked up at me, and I was still slightly stunned. "Hey, you okay? You look kind of pale."

"I'm fine." I looked back at her. "You're Julia's sister?" I saw Eli from behind her pick his head up.

She looked at me in disbelief, then shot Eli a look. He shrugged, then she turned back to me, and sighed. "Yes. She was my sister. What about it?"

I hadn't expected an answer like that. She was almost _angry. _It almost seemed like she was a different person than the girl I met yesterday. I suddenly found myself struggling for words. "I—just… I wanted to know—I-I'm sorry. I get that it's… sensitive…"

She turned to glare at Eli before looking back at me. "Drop it, Edwards." She suddenly looked down and closed her eyes. I saw a tear fall down her cheek. She was… crying? She didn't even wipe her eyes before she turned back and asked, each word very heavy, "What was the plotline we were going with?"

We immediately went back to our project. None of my questions were answered, and I figured I just had to let them all go. I felt bad about it, but it seemed over.

Then the bell rang, and Angel jumped out of her seat, grabbed Eli by the arm, and began screaming at him the second they left the room.


End file.
